Over the last few months, MDIF clients and media partners across continents were honoured at various prestigious journalism and media awards, reflecting the breadth and impact of their work across continents.
Africa
MDIF-backed media outlets swept the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Africa 2025 with three of our investees winning five awards across categories.
- Daily Maverick, a digital media outlet in South Africa, secured awards for Best News Website, Best Newsletter and Best Digital Subscription Initiative.
- The Outlier, published by MDIF client Media Hack Collective, was recognized for Best Data Visualisation for their story ‘Road to a just energy transition’ that helped “its audience understand the complexities of energy transition and how it would ’shift power’ across the country.”
- Food For Mzansi, an MDIF client aimed at introducing South Africans to the unsung heroes of the agricultural industry won the award for Best Fact-Checking Project for Plasea’s Brave Discovery, a multimedia report including tracing the sources of the illegal pesticides, and empowering communities with accurate, science-backed information after the death of 22 children due to exposure to exposure to highly toxic pesticides in South Africa.
MDIF client The Republic, a Nigeria based digital media outlet with a focus on newsletters, was honoured with the 2025 Inbox Collective Award for Innovation in Design. The award, dedicated to highlighting innovative work in newsletters specifically recognized the design excellence of The Republic’s newsletter ‘This Week‘.
Ukraine
In Ukraine, Hryvna, a small independent newspaper based in Kherson, was named a finalist in the ‘Best Use of Print’ category at the 2025 INMA Global Media Awards, being cited as ‘A Beacon of Truth in the Heart of War’. The International News Media Association (INMA) commended Hryvna as “a vital source of accurate news, stories of recovery, and inspiration for a community grappling with the horrors of war”. Despite significant challenges, including the occupation of its printing house and looting of equipment, Hryvna has continued to serve its community with unwavering commitment.
Romania
Moving on to MDIF’s partner’s in Romania, journalism and current affairs websites recorder.ro, HotNews.ro, and G4Media.ro, all partners in our Amplify Europe program, were ranked amongst the top five most cited media sources in Romania in January 2025.
Recorder sealed the leading position with its impactful investigation titled “Carpathian Cartel” about a network of Romanian officials amassing wealth through political protection, which led to a National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) investigation into Vlad Oprea, the mayor of Sinaia. This recognition underscored Recorder’s commitment to investigative journalism and its national and global impact. Hotnews.ro and g4media.ro followed up in the list with second and fourth rank respectively.
Pakistan
The Centrum Media’s founder Talha Ahad, a media partner in our business capacity strengthening program Amplify Asia, won the Podcast Trailblazer of the Year 2024 award at the XBorder Excellence Awards for the ‘Talha Ahad Podcast’, a platform for insightful conversations with political leaders and other thought leaders and innovators from the world of business and technology.
El Salvador
MDIF client El Faro’s photojournalist Carlos Barrera won the 2025 World Press Photo award in the Long-Term Projects category in the North and Central American region for his project Life and Death in a Country without Constitutional Rights, a curation of 30 monochromatic photographs portraying the journey of the most vulnerable Salvadorans’ under the state of exception.
“This project powerfully captures the personal toll of state violence, offering an intimate view into the lives of individuals who have been unfairly arrested and brutalized,” wrote the jury. “The photographer’s creative approach to protecting identities while maintaining visual impact heightens the sense of descending darkness and terror.”
Many congratulations to all our clients and partners for their achievements and continuing to do their work with dedication and perseverance.